Thursday, September 18, 2008

Knitting Report

There hasn't been much time for knitting this week, but it's rare and awful week that admits no time for knitting. This is what I took as travel knitting to Boston and back again.

I've had this yarn–it's Felici, from Knitpicks, in the Schooner colorway–in the cupboard for ages and kept meaning to try it out. The night before my flight east, it rolled out of the stash cupboard for the 11,232nd time and I said, Enough already, you're next.

I haven't used a self-striping yarn since my first socks, and here's why. When making things from scratch, I turn into a control freak. Just ask the poor souls at Interweave who got stuck on the team that put the little book together. (They'll be out of rehab in time for the launch, though, so all's well that ends well.)

Oh, I know. You figured that maybe with the Buddhism and the meditation and the potent pharmaceuticals I must be blissed-out all the time–one of those wispy artistes who likes to let go and invite the universe to step in, take my hand and lead me on a merry dance 'round the garden down paths unseen and unexpected.

Screw that. I don't have a garden, and if you dance down a path unseen and unexpected in my neighborhood park you're likely to get a nasty surprise. I have a hard time letting other fingers make changes to my work, even figurative fingers like yarn that decides on my behalf when the color is going to change and what the new color will be.

I broke down when I saw Schooner, though, because these are–wonder of wonders–colors I'd choose to use. And the stripes are real, bold stripes, which I prefer even though I acknowledge that they make my ankles look fast. And, you know, the stuff is from Knitpicks, so it's inexpensive but good quality–not much of a gamble.

Anyhow, I like it so far. I'm just doing a plain vanilla top-down sock with p1, k1b rib in the leg and the instep. Even under the most jittery circumstances–like hurtling through the air at 30,000 feet worrying that angry, disappointed knitters will throw eggs at you after your first lecture–you can still work on this without messing it up too much.

Shhhhhhh!

I also finished Evelyn Clark's deservedly famous Swallowtail Shawl as a present for a certain person in my life whose ninetieth birthday is being celebrated at a surprise party (a true surprise, since the actual birthday will be in January) this weekend. She doesn't read my blog, so I feel safe giving you a peek.

I wanted a larger shawl than the pattern normally yields, so I used sport* weight (Joslyn's Fiber Farm Sheep's Gift Solid) and bigger needles, and in surprsingly short order I was finished. This is the fruit of ten hours, maybe twelve, of pleasant work. It's still a small shawl–only about 4 1/2 feet tip to tip–but it's large enough for church, and that's what I wanted.

I didn't make any changes other than the yarn and needle substitution. And here's tip, if you've eyed patterns with nupps and worried about working them properly: practice with heavier weight yarn. Working these was incredibly easy, and having done so many in a thick yarn I know I'll approach them without (or at least, with less) trepidation in fine yarn.

Notes on the Nightcap

Speaking of yarn substitutions, there have been a lot of questions about yarn choice for the 1840 Nightcap. The Steinbach Wolle Maxi isn't impossible to find (I bought mine right off the shelf at Loopy), but if your LYS doesn't have it and you don't want to shop online, go ahead and substitute another very skinny yarn. By very skinny, I mean a light sock weight, a lace weight, or similar crochet thread. Use anything fatter and you'll find, considering the number of stitches in the cast on, that you've made a head-and-shoulders cozy.

Also, there have been some questions about ease. I wish I'd noted that the fit of the hat is somewhat loose as compared to, say, a beanie meant to be worn outdoors in the wind. This is more comfortable for sleeping and, so far as I can tell, appropriate to the period. If you're concerned about it being too loose, you can alter the fit by casting on fewer stitches (in multiples of 13) and adjusting your other numbers accordingly.

And to the extremely angry** lady who wrote asking why I'd sized the pattern to fit a man's head and not a woman's and calling me a sexist, please read the article. It's a man's nightcap. The man wearing it in the picture–see the beard?–might also have been a clue, if you'd looked closely.

*Edited. I originally typed "worsted." My brain must be melting. Maybe it's because I've been working with so much lace and sock weight–everything else now feels like rope.

**Where is all this knitter anger coming from, anyhow? All the things in the world that are wrong and broken, and there's anger over a free knitting pattern?

109 comments:

I find it amusing that anyone has the nerve to critize another knitter for making something in whatever size they choose. Because, really? It just isn't about them. The swallowtail is lovely; thanks for sharing it.

I love the 1840 Nightcap. I'm knitting it for my-own very female self in a fingerling weight wool, and I'll be sporting it around the neighborhood this winter while propping up a shovel when I should be shoveling. It's a fabulous find and I'm so glad you "translated" it for us all. Oh. And I have a big head, so the "manly" size is perfect for me.

Isn't it just lovely knitting for your nanna? I'm making a pair of fetching mittens for mine who is in her 80s. Maybe one day i'll progress to making her a shawl. and i've fallen in love with those socks. oh, and i've pre-ordered the little book too and I can't wait to get it.

I love the socks! I must admit that I am also hopeless addicted to self-striping yarns. The Swallowtail is just simply DIVINE! As for the cap, I must agree 100% with you! LOOK at the picture dear reader and then let someone hit you in the back of the head to let it sink in! I agree with Kate as well, I have a lot of hair and I like to make large sizes to cover it, so this will be the ticket.

Thank you for all that you add to this wonderful fiber filled world! Safe travels as always!

Swallowtail in worsted - that's a stroke of genius! I'm just now collection social security, but I'm cold in church. Those "hot mamas" who have sway over the sextant keep the air conditioning cranked WAY down, I tell ya. You're a good boy!

With the self striping yarns, you may want to think about doing an afterthought heel with a coordinating solid color. That usually keeps my control freak demons at bay. :)

Love the Swallowtail shawl! According to the link you supplied, it is in the Fall 2006 issue of Interweave Knits for those readers who don't have Evelyn's book. I will definitely look it up tonight and flag it.

I've been working on a scarf with tons of nupps -- in Jaggerspun Zephyr, no less. You definitely want a clear head and good lighting for that! And learn to check your completed nupps carefully for uncaught loops before you knit a whole 'nother pattern repeat (ask me how I know...)

I've spent years thinking that I have a freakishly huge head for a woman (or possibly just freakishly huge hair). Now I feel a lot better - perhaps we shoudl start a club.

And I might just knit the night-cap, seeing as how I'm the one who freezes in bed in winter, and we're doing this "let's see how long we can put off turning on the heating, have you seen the price of gas lately" thing at the moment.

Whoa. I can't imagine being angry over a knitting pattern. I get a little annoyed when I'm an inch into a center pull ball and there's a knot, and then I go another 10 yards and there's another knot, but that's about it.

Is that old picture a common one or pose? I feel like I've seen that exact one before.

Nice socks - though I can't figure out if you've got fast ankles, or fat ankles... Ah, the possibilities.

So - I'm assuming you're going to be attempting identical rather than fraternal socks? (and yes, actually, I AM a librarian with an alphabetised CD collection, and Trekking drives me insane... I hoped I'd be all laid-back and asymmetrical - nope.)

Love the Swallowtail, and the colour, and congratulations on the nupps. I hated them... And (even for a knitter who is always too loose for gauge) the finished object in the designated yarn is the size of a ladies' handkerchief...

Okay, I had to go measure my head. I do not have what I consider to be a large head and I measure over 22".And as a professional costume maker I would also like to say that a head is a head is a head (leaving the misquote to keep this pg). It's not like one gender's head sports bumps where the other gender does not (although my brother's head certainly does, but that came from his propensity to fall off walls and roofs as a child not his gender. Although the propensity to fall off walls and roofs may be due to his gender so.... Anyway...)Some women will have 22" heads... some larger, some smaller, and the same for men. There is no men's only head size.

I think you picked a great self-striping yarn to use to satisfy your, um, peculiar needs for control when you knit. Those stripes are almost freakishly regular - exactly four rows per stripe? Every stripe? Come on, when have you ever seen any other self-striping yarn do that?

Wow, I might have to make that night cap. I was one of the girls that would fight with the boys for the bigger hats in band. There will always be some people who are unhappy. I say that person should look at this as a knitting opportunity and teach herself to adapt a pattern.

it is so funny a woman would be upset about a pattern in mens sizes - since most knitting patterns are made for women, and are thus sexist anyhow. there really is a lot of random anger floating around. i don't know where it comes from, but i hope it doesn't land on me.

I find the unnamed knitter's anger very ironic, since there are so few knitting patterns for men compared to the number available for women. Especially since it would be so easy to adapt this pattern to fit any size head.

Dearie - there are people my DH calls "The POs". Stands for "perpetually outraged". They're just not happy unless they're miserable. They yell about free patterns, they scream about my portraying a Native American woman (without asking if I am or not, mind), they demand their money back - AFTER the movie...you know the type. And you've assured yourself a warm spot in the heart of all Ladies of Advancing Age with that shawl. (Not to mention probably ladies of all other ages, now you mention.)

Victorine called. She would like to know where she should send...well...let's just say she's got a rather unique way of dealing with mean people, because they well and truly suck.

Also, we'd like to know when you're coming to buy her new pasties...I mean, visit our fair city. Because I'm not going to Rhinebeck this year thanks to a heeeyuuuge unexpected crunch involving little person, and Victorine is full of, heu, sympathy for my situation. At least that's what she calls it.

Hey, cranky lady, just use smaller yarn! Not brain surgery. Just hat surgery.

I am visiting Chicago even as we speak and am planning on a Loopy Yarns expedition for Friday Night knitting. Last time I was in town and went to Loopy, I tried to take the subway the way I had the time before, but the Loop Red Line stations were all closed, so I had to take a bus, which meant I had to find exact change, then get on a bus and hope I had guessed correctly, which I kind of had but the bus did drop me off a half mile away, which wouldn't have been a problem except the skies opened up (it was the June weekend there were tornado warnings in Chicago and flooding in Wisconsin). Luckily, the nice Loopy people let me stay until I dried off....

Gave me lots of time to shop. I certainly filled my suitcase with 'souvenirs'!

Looking forward to a less eventful Loopy trip this time, and to seeing their new digs.

Must be spillover anger. It's pretty hard to scream effectively at those responsible for all the things that are wrong and broken in the world. The designer of a free pattern, though? Easy target. Even if you didn't do anything wrong.

I read your "10 maybe 12 hours" several times to see what I was missing. It took me that long to get the right number of stitches cast on.

I can't quite figure out how anger and knitting can co-exist. I mean, if you're angry, you probably can't knit. And if you're knitting, how could you be angry. Ach! Who knows. And I love the shawl...such a beautiful, appropriate and heartfelt gift. I hope someone makes me one when I'm 90. (Where do you plan to be in 30 years?)

Hope you remember to show us your fast ankles. I'm sure they'll be lovely.And I think anger is the flip side of fear. And the country is flippin' scared: politics, terrorists, finances. But who can you complain to about those things? But you, dear Franklin are so mch more accessible.My sympathies.

the socks are lovely, the nightcap is wonderful, but the shawl... oh that lovely purple shawl... lucky the lady that will receive it. I'm going through my lace knitting phase right now, interspersed with sock knitting, I must put the swallowtail in my queue. take care. In case I haven't mentioned it, I enjoy your blog immensly.

It's a beautiful pattern, and you are a genius, and that purple shawl is also wonderful. Some people just have a lot of anger, combined with poor judgement about what they do with it. Shouldn't she be writing some POLITICIANS some letters?

About your sock, are you twisting the knit stitches when doing the rib? I was looking at the nice stripes and noticed the knit stitches have more of a tear-drop shape that comes from twisting the stitches versus a horseshoe shape from knitting untwisted. I'm a nerd and just wondering.

Not to excuse poor behavior, but I think that a lot of women in the craft just have this notion that anything with even a smidge of lace or texture is meant for a woman. I know I wouldn't be able to get my husband to wear it (though I could probably size it down for me instead).

Besides I don't think I get to criticize people's free patterns until I am brave enough to put something out there that I've created myself, and even then criticize gently!

I can't understand people who have the hide to snark at someone for offering a free pattern - any free pattern - on their own blog out of the goodness of their heart.... and lucky Grandma !... and ... FAST ankles? not that I can imagine your lower extremities looking fat but fast> fast would be good, right ? :]

I'm just so pleased you wrote the pattern as you did. I've been searching for the perfect birthday present for an 80-year-old male friend who loves Victorian linen nightshirts - and you've come up with it! Many thanks. Perfect.

Franklin: I'm on my second try for this nightcap. I'm knitting it for my father. It's too big again. I finally sat down and did some numbers. With the gauge you give in the pattern 208 sts. would be 26" in cirumference. How did you get 22" with that number? I'm using a different cotton thread, but I think it's pretty close to Steinbach Maxi. I'm using 2mm needles and it still turned out 24" at the edge. I think this cap would be a fun gift, that's why I started over again, but I'm not sure I can stand to start over a third time. I admit I'm not much of a gauge person, but this cap just might have converted me to one. Why would anybody, not being bald, want to wear a night cap anyway?

Ignore the woman's (I'll be darned if I'll call her a lady!) anger and angst. Anybody that gets their hoo-ha in a twist over a pattern they got for free, well...words fail me. Polite words, anyway. Thanks for making the pattern available; I loooove period patterns, but translating them into modern terms can be very...um...interesting. You're a braver man than I am, Gunga Din!

The shawl is beautiful. You are indeed a sweet man. There must be a lot of love in all those nupps.

In nearly four years you've grown from this obscure photographer to one of the icons of the knitting world. You're loved and respected by an army of fans. The challenge you have taken on will enhance your reputation. Remember that when the next Ms Crankypants snarks at you for something you have done.

Hope the birthday girl has a very lovely day, and that shawl will be treasured, I know!(Oh..folks...get OVER the knitting anger? We're supposed to be more or less calm...remember the "zen of knitting" and all that?)(((Hugs)))

It always surprises me how some knitters can get so angry - especially when they are getting something for FREE!! Didn't their mothers tell them "Don't bite the hand that feeds you"? Well I'm here to remind them. And some of the best patterns around are the free knitting patterns. I haven't looked at the actual pattern instructions for the night cap but, judging by its' appearance, I think it's a great pattern. I will probably have to adjust the pattern or find really super skinny yarn since my head is on the small size & I have short hair. (Any book signings in the Chicago area?)

Anger over knitting??? Goodness me, some folks like to make a fuss over trivialities, don't they?

Franklin, I am going to have to accuse you of getting my interest in knitting going again...especially after seeing the photo of that beautiful shawl. I used to do all sorts of beautiful patterns like that. And I'm in danger of rushing out to buy patterns and yarn...I already have the needles.

Loved the post, especially the swallow tail,do let us know how the surprise went.

Bear in mind that as you become more famous, even I know who you are now, the green eyed monster will become ever present. Once you achieve Knitting God status it will all go away. Not long to wait then!Jacqueline x

Oh, fer... I don't understand some people. The nightcap is wonderful. I would have knit one for my dad if he were still alive. He knit one for himself when I was a kid, as we always lived in cold houses.

Lovely lovely sock. But wait, it's only the first one! I had once to almost shed a brand new ball of self-striping sock yarn to pieces, for the sheer sake of symmetry. Ouch. That's when the second sock syndrom hurts. Even the xanax was hopeless.And yes, as a patented control freak I can tell all these little stitches are carefully twisted to hold their shape... Beautiful job!

i hope no one complains about the swallowtail... the most comical thing i have heard. your swallow tail is very very pretty and as i suspect the wearer to have grey hair there is nothing i like more than the purple range of colours for grey hair. well except ochre.

I have cast on for the nightcap and am confused. Note that this is not the first time, its not you, its me. The pattern repeat has me adding 2 stitches with yo's, but only decreasing one with the skp (slip, knit1, pass?). Please state the obvious for me.

How could anyone be angry with you? Cute, funny, talented, and as if that were not enough, you knit too!

What a wonderfull old photo! Who is she? and how nice your scarf comes out on this photo. Really beautiful!I bet Dolores would like to wear the scarf also on her night outs :-)Do not give it to her because you probably have to search your whole town to find it at last probably in a dark and spooky place

I suspect...this is just my hypothesis here, and I could be wrong...but a lot of the anger that's out there, that flares up about things about which is should not flare up, is perhaps a result of people feeling a lack of control.

The economy is tanking...but we have little control there.

The ugliness in politics is spiraling crazy...but we have little control there.

Other things in the world are very messed up...that we have no control over.

But knitting patterns? Heck yea, we can complain to the author and feel like we have some control!

I don't know. This week has made me feel like crawling under the bed with a box of Mallomars, personally.

I'm making the 1840 Nightcap for my dad (got the pattern from Knitty), but I think there's a part of the pattern missing, the part between making the band and the peak. Looking at the picture I'm thinking that the rows from 43 to 63 are probably knit 1 row, purl one row, but I'm not entirely sure. Can you let me know, please??? My email is plantinga-reed@scarlet.nl

I enjoy reading your blog. The Swallowtail shawl is so sweet. I love seeing people's creativity and it's great when they share a free pattern. I love the 1840 nightcap and want to make one for my husband.

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